Mighty Ape launches Mighty Mobile service, promising not to throttle data speeds

Monday, 28 August 2023

Gracie MacKinlay, chief executive of Mighty Ape announced the online retailer was launching into the pre-paid teleco market.

Online retailer Mighty Ape has launched a pre-pay mobile telecoms service offering unlimited data plans, which do not include “throttling down” the data speeds for very high-use customers.

Mighty Ape sold goods to about 700,000 discrete New Zealand shoppers in the past 12 months, its chief executive Gracie MacKinlay said, but it had a particular following among the online gaming community.

She said Mighty Mobile, as the new venture is called, would market to its large customer base, offering the first “truly unlimited prepay offering in New Zealand”.

Mobile “throttling” is the practice of mobile service providers intentionally slowing down users’ data speeds once they pass a certain level of data usage in a month.

Mighty Mobile’s pre-pay plans would operate on the One network, but while chief executive Jason Paris expected Mighty Mobile to win customers from One, overall, the deal would be positive for One.

Paris said unlimited pre-pay plans were common in many overseas countries, including many across Asia.

New Zealand's Vodafone changed its name to One NZ in April, under a rebrand first announced last year.

Mighty Mobile is launching three unlimited data prepay plans from August 30, which it calls Fast, Faster, and Fastest, each of which can be pre-paid either on a monthly, or an annual basis.

The plans all include unlimited standard calls and texts to both New Zealand and Australian numbers from within New Zealand, but overseas roaming won’t be offered until later in the year.

The Fast and Faster plans provide unlimited data at speeds up to 10Mbps and 50Mbps respectively, and the Fastest plans provide unlimited data with no capped maximum speed, Mighty Mobile’s marketing says.

There was no guarantee those speeds would be hit at all times, and could depend on things like the capability of devices, and location.

Mighty Mobile contracts will also have fair use clauses.

Mighty Mobile is a purely online telco service. People sign up buy simcards online, and the sims would be sent to them.

In time, it’s possible Mighty Mobile would make sims available for sale at airports, so they could target the tourism market, MacKinlay said.

The Fast plan will cost $40 a month, though if people pre-pay in a single payment for 12 months, they will pay $399.

The Faster plan will cost $50-a-month, or $499-a-year.

The Fastest plan will cost $80-a-month, or $799-a-year.

The first three months will be discounted at launch in order to encourage people to sign up.

McKinlay expected the plans to be attractive not only to gamers, but to people who did not want any bill surprises from their teleco provider.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said the Fast plan cost $30 a month. (Amended: 3.01pm, August 29, 2023)